


Across and Down

by alphardhy



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: F/M, Fluff, GIVE ME ALL THE BLUESEY FLUFF, Late Night Conversations, No Plot/Plotless, Post-The Raven King, mentions of noah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2016-07-21
Packaged: 2018-07-25 18:08:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7542715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alphardhy/pseuds/alphardhy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There was a reason Gansey had stopped resorting to crosswords on sleepless nights a long time ago. But old habits die hard, and frustrating habits die even harder.</p><p>In which Gansey tries to solve crosswords at two o'clock in the morning and ends up talking on the phone to Blue about evil minds and assistant robots.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across and Down

One of the keys to solving crosswords, Gansey had come to learn, was that you had to believe in the choices you made. You had to believe your words were indeed part of something bigger, take the plunge and write down your answer. Some secrets, after all, only gave themselves up to those who had proven themselves worthy. He knew that well enough. But how was he supposed to take the risk and write something if he could not come up with at least one possible answer in the first place? Though Gansey was quite good with words, some of the clues could be way too cryptic or vague, and trying to crack those puzzles sometimes proved nearly as frustrating as chasing magic and the supernatural without a second sight. There was a reason he had stopped resorting to crosswords on sleepless nights a long time ago.

But old habits die hard, and frustrating habits die even harder, so there he was at two o'clock in the morning, a pencil in his hand, a worn-out crossword book resting on his lap and his mind going over all the four-letter words that could work as the solution to the clue "Thing under a hood". If Noah had been there—God, even the mere thought still felt surreal—he would probably have started pointing his finger at everything in the room that could fit the definition, regardless of the number of letters of the word. Gansey could almost hear him say _Pen? Hair? It could be Ronan, too_. But Noah was not there, would not be there anymore, and neither was Ronan, who had recently moved back to the Barns.

Gansey heaved a sigh, and Monmouth sighed back. His castle seemed too big now, time moved slowly, and he could not find the word he needed. He grabbed his phone, pushed his wireframes up his nose and typed the one word his mind was whispering to him instead:

_Jane?_

He stared at the screen and waited. Ever since Maura had got Blue a cell phone a couple of months ago, their late night conversations had become much more frequent, and they had developed some sort of code for the messages they exchanged, a language in which their names mostly meant _please call me if you’re awake_ at that time of the day. She was most probably asleep already, but still Gansey waited, fidgeting with the pencil he had been using earlier all the while.

His phone buzzed, and his pulse quickened a bit. Then it buzzed once more. She was awake. She was awake and at the other end of the line. Gansey put the phone to his ear.

"Hey," Blue said softly after a few seconds of silence. But they both knew that what she actually meant was _I'm here now, it's okay_. And it was, somehow. Gansey closed his eyes, stillness washing over him at the sound of her voice.

He picked up the crossword book.

"You've reached Congress." Gansey heard her laugh into her pillow. "To proceed tell us things you can find under a hood. Please note that all your answers must have four letters. To end the call simply hang up."

"Oh, sorry, I called you by accident," Blue answered, her voice much more cheerful now. "I meant to call Richard Gansey. I will hang up now. Nice voicemail, by the way. Or assistant robot. Or whatever this is."

"To speak to Richard Gansey tell us things you can find under a hood. Please note that all your answers must have four letters. To end the call simply hang up," Gansey insisted. And this time, he added, "Thank you for your compliment, by the way. It means so much to this rusty robot."

Blue snorted at that, and he could not help but laugh, too.

"Head," she said all of a sudden.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You wanted a four-letter word, didn't you? So I told you a four-letter word. Head."

"Oh, right," Gansey replied. "Unfortunately, your word wasn't the right answer, as I forgot to mention that it most probably ends in _n_. But you've reached Richard Gansey anyway." He cleared his throat and continued, "Hello, Jane."

"You're impossible," Blue said, but he could still hear the smile in her voice. "I was going to make a joke about Robin being the thing under the hood, but _Robin_ has five letters. Bummer."

"Tragic. I'll give you a point for the effort."

There was a pause. Gansey put the pencil behind his ear and absent-mindedly ran a hand through his hair.

"So," Blue started. "I didn't know you liked crosswords."

"I'm not sure how to feel about them right now. Crossword creators are evil minds, Jane. Evil minds who enjoy writing vague definitions."

"I think we should fear them," Blue whispered, clearly amused.

"Indeed!"

"Oh, and if I were you, I would call Congress and ask them about that word. I don't know, maybe that nice assistant robot can help."

"Good idea. You know what? I think I'll call Congress tomorrow."

"If they give you the answer, will you tell me? Now I need to know."

"Don't worry, Jane, you’ll be the first to know."

"Glad to hear that," Blue said in a quiet voice.

"Glad to hear that, too," Gansey said back. And after a few moments, he added, "Thank you."

"Thank you, too," Blue echoed this time.

It was their way of saying _I really needed this call_ and _I'm going to sleep now_. Gansey knew he was—he could always sleep after he talked to her.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you were wondering, the word was _oven_. (Yes, I used a real crossword for this.)
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr at [lirapheus](http://lirapheus.tumblr.com). Thanks for reading!


End file.
